The invention relates to electric griddles and grills intended for indoor use in homes.
Indoor electric griddles and grills are useful for cooking a variety of foods. For example, indoor griddles are commonly used to cook breakfast foods. A common problem for these appliances is that given the relatively large surface area desired for cooking foods such as eggs and pancakes the power density, watts per surface area, is somewhat limited due to the limited power typically available for such appliances in residential homes. In the United States plug in electrical products for home use are typically limited to 1500 watts per electric outlet in order to be usable on 15 amp circuits found in many homes. In countries that have adopted 220 or 240 volt residential distribution the available power per electric outlet may be somewhat higher such as 2500 watts, but still limited. While the available power density is typically satisfactory for many types of foods requiring a slower cooking time (i.e. pancakes and eggs) the power density may not be sufficient for browning and crispy textures (i.e. hash browns, French toasts, bacon, meat patties, sausages, and steaks). One solution is to use gas-powered cooking appliances. However, portable gas powered griddles or grills are not typically used indoors in homes. Another solution is to reduce the surface area to increase the power density to provide satisfactory browning and quick cooking. Thus, for indoor electric griddles and grills intended for home use a trade off has been required between cooking area and power density.